Emma Thompson Headlines “Boycott Israel”

Quick question before we move ahead — suppose a Jewish “West Bank” scientist discovers the cure for cancer, will this too be boycotted?

Now to the headline: English actress Emma Thompson (the new and improved Vanessa Redgrave) has joined a growing list of theatrical luminaries in demanding that Israel’s national theater company, Habima (based in Tel Aviv), be disinvited from performing at next month’s drama festival at London’s Globe Theater. In effect, a boycott and the Nuremberg Laws all over again.

Was there ever a boycott against England for its Irish Troubles?

From the moment Shakespeare gave us Shylock, European anti-Semitism has been enjoying a continuous revival without end.

Dear World, another quick question – suppose you prepare yet another Holocaust for us but this time we won’t come?

But Habima – into the teeth of the World’s Boycott Epidemic – is determined to show up in London to perform Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.” You’d expect this to thrill Miss Thompson and the rest of her theatrical community as, after all, this drama ignited a thousand pogroms…and…Hitler loved the play.

Not good enough. Miss Thompson and Friends (as I understand it) intend to boycott Habima because Habima refused to boycott Ariel. Got that? So what we have is a boycott to punish a non-boycott. I hope you’re following me on this theatrical version of book burning because I can’t make this up.

Ariel’s 530-seat Cultural Center was completed in 2010, but, oops, the town is somewhat beyond the famous Green Line so…so back then about 30 left-of-gravity Israeli artists boycotted the theater. Habima demurred. This does not mean that Habima is friendly to the Right or supportive to the settlement movement, necessarily. It DOES mean that Habima was true to the first rule of the theater – artists stick together!

Not so in London where not the play but being Jewish is the thing.

If all this sounds like déjà vu, it is, only last time the place was Toronto. We go back to 2009 where organizers of the Toronto Film Festival invited filmmakers from Israel to participate and this immediately came to the attention of an alert Jane Fonda who staged a protest against Israel and which drew a multitude of above-the-title personalities. Types like Harry Belafonte and Julie Christie joined the stampede. (see Hate-Fest, Starring Jane Fonda here)

A thousand men and women of the Arts, bloated with self-righteousness and self-satisfaction, came running to sign onto “The Toronto Declaration” which declared “No Celebration for Occupation.” So we had that boycott then and this boycott now. The (boycott) show must go on, apparently.

When it comes to Israel, everybody’s a critic.

Academics are famous for changing colors to match any tyrant that hits town. Back in 1933 Germany professors went brothel in a snap.

But when actors, known as a class to be tolerant and nurturing, revert to mankind’s worst instincts it’s time to quit forgiving them for any pretense of crocodile piety for the Palestinian cause. No, it’s a much simpler cause and the declaration is simple enough…which is to boycott Israel not from Toronto and not from London, but rather to boycott all Jews from the face of the earth.

Fortunately, the Jewish people now have Israel, and no, we choose not to attend your next Holocaust.

Novelist Jack Engelhard’s international bestseller “Indecent Proposal” is now available on Kindle here, as is his thriller on media manipulation against Israel, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” here. Website: www.jackengelhard.com

"Precise, almost clinical language...is this book fun to read? You betcha!"

The New York TimesIndecent Proposal

"That Jack Engelhard is a talented novelist is self-evident. His story plots are engrossing, his writing is fluid, and his characters are easily recognizable. They are as flawed and complex as flesh and blood people. And like actual people, they are often confronted by moral choices. This is where Jack Engelhard becomes an important novelist. By presenting his characters with moral roadblocks, the author asks us, as readers, to examine our own ethics. That's rare in today's literature."